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D3ABB090-5565-452E-9061-68767C9F6300
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Update Title: D3ABB090-5565-452E-9061-68767C9F6300
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A four movement work celebrating Oregon's past and present. Composed for the Oregon Centennial Commission and the Oregon Symphony in 1959, the work was reworked in 1999 for a Portland Youth Philharmonic Alumni concert commemorating Avshalomov's 80th birthday. Movements: I. The Fog Serpent, II. The Mountain, III. The Rose, IV. The Glistening City
Instrumentation
3(1d Piccolo).2+English Horn.4(1d E-flat Clarinet, 1d Bass Clarinet).2+ContraBassoon: 4.3.3.1: Timpani.Percussion(4).clst.Harp: Strings
Commission
Oregon Centennial Commission for the Oregon Symphony/ 1959
Dedication
Program Notes
Settling in Oregon is for most people a westward trek. But for me it was the termination of three gerations' eastward movement--from the mountains of Caucasia to Siberia to North China to Oregon. My own sojourns in various parts of the United States and visits to other countries have been way stations en route to an adopted homeland. The joy that I find in my chosen work with the Junior Symphony in Portland would be reason enough to compose a work celebrating the Oregon Centennial--at anyone's suggestion. But to have been charged to do so by the State's Centennial Commission has an importance beyond the responsibility entrusted to me. In an age when the arts have lost their traditional patrons--the church and the aristocracy--the question of who is to succeed to this function is a most troubling one. To see the State assuming it at its anniversary is both notable and touching. In considering the kind of piece that would appropriately salute Oregon's hundreth year of Statehood I sought certain perennial aspects of the country which affect the people who live here. I shared my deliberations with a native and fervent Oregonian, my wife, and after much though finally settled on: The Columbia River with its great gorge; Mount Hood--a sight to raise the eyes and spirit; a flower that is the city's chief joy--the Rose; and our City- the heart of the State. With this range a symphony seemed indicated (despite the humbling recollection that Brahms wrote his First at my present age). Each of the four movements reflects one of the foregoing subjects--to a certain extent literally, but also, I hope, in feeling. The work was begun in 1960 in Portland and was completed here in February 1962. Much of it was written in Munich between these dates. The score (which calls for a full orchestra) contains these inscriptions which are a kind of translation of my musical feelings. As to form, we have an Introduction, a Sonata, an Aria and a Scherzo-Rondo. THE FOG SERPENT (an image found in an early settler's poem) The sight of fog moving in the Columbia River Gorge winding westward. THE MOUNTAIN Gift of clear days-- White, stark majesty, now cold and distant, now radiant; host to wild-life and -flower; enduring wind and storm; stern guardian of the region it surveys. THE ROSE Warm intimate emblem of beauty; lasting, fragrant, convolute; its tenderness protected by its thorns. THE GLISTENING CITY After rain the sun and the gleaming air make countless jewels in the teeming city. --Jacob Avshalomov
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Premier Performance Memo
-Portland Symphony Orchestra/Jacob Avshalovmov. 26 Apr 62. -World Premiere. Portland Symphony Orchestra/Jacob Avshalomov. 19 Mar 62.
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Review
"The composer, who conducted, once again demonstrated his mastery of orchestral effects and his skill in constructing a work of large proportion...The first movement, inspired by the Columbia River and subtitled 'The Fog Serpent' is remarkably realistic in its eerie evocations of moving fog. The third movement 'The Rose,' which is filled with engaging and persuasive themes and has the charm and sensitivity which is characteristic of the subject. <BR> The fourth and last movement, 'The Glistening City,' celebrates the Oregon Centennial by the inclusion of the 'Happy Birthday to You' theme slyly emerging from a mass of complex rhythms and harmonies and finally triumphing in a rousing finish which greatly pleased the large audience."<BR> -- Clayton Hare, Portland Reporter
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Title Movements
I. The Fog Serpent II. The Mountain III. The Rose IV. The Glistening City
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